a. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to medical imaging and more particularly to a system and method for tool shape estimation.
b. Background Art
When a medical tool (e.g., a catheter) is inserted into a patient and navigated to a region of interest, a clinician using the tool may require specific knowledge of the shape of the tool within the region of interest. Conventional approaches for determining the shape typically involve extensive use of fluoroscopy (i.e., a manual determination of the shape of the tool). It would be desirable to reduce or eliminate the use of fluoroscopy in order to reduce patient exposure to x-rays.
An approach taken in the art for estimating tool shape involves providing a system for detecting (during use) the location of a position sensor embedded in a catheter and then rendering the catheter tip based on the detected sensor location, as seen by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,476 entitled MEDICAL POSITIONING SYSTEM to Strommer et al., hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Strommer et al. disclose rendering a representation of the tool on a display based only on the location reading from the sensor. Despite this improvement over manual tool shape estimation, there remains a desire for tool shape estimation, particularly for curved tools, within a region of interest without extensive use of fluoroscopy.
There is therefore a need for a system and method for estimating tool shape that minimizes or eliminates one or more of the problems set forth above.